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Thoughts on Reflection

This past Sunday eve, we had our first of the Lenten Evening Services. Jude brought us through his thoughts on Reflection and how important it is to implement it into our daily life. Here's his notes on Reflection as well as his very helpful illustration on how we capture, process and implement our experiences into our lives.

Come along next week as we practice one way of processing in Visual Journaling (7-8pm at Florence Road).

What is Reflection for me

In my life & Faith reflection has been the single most profound discipline I have ever embarked upon.

I..this isn't about a particular method, lectio divina or journaling or video diaries per say but more about my personal narrative of reflection

Reflection is not about more-

It's about deeper.

If we imagine that our lives & Faith are filled with stuff we know & stuff we learn.

Our good decisions

Our poor decisions

Sermons,

Books,

Talking to friends.

Listening to music

Being in nature

Watching films

All the good stuff of life.

For me Reflection is about capturing it all and then working out how this fits in with you.

Space

So I guess the first thing about reflection is we need to create the space for it. This is an important step,

For me, I like to create a day of the week for reflection. It happens to be Sunday, a day to look back. However, I also like to put aside a chunk of time everyday to reflect.

Creating Space is really important. As it needs to be realistic. Without sustainable and continuous space to reflect I would find it hard to be able to capture all that good stuff.

So....look at the patterns of your life. The busy times, the peaceful times, look for the spaces that you feel you can effectively build space for reflection into it.

I guess consistency is the more important than frequency.

A long term approach is required a day a week over the rest of your lives is more significanct than every day for a few months.

How to capture?

So remember we talked about all of this stuff, coming in?

Sermons

Community narratives

Books you read (including the bible)

How do we capture this all in a way that can help us?

What's most important is finding a way that feeds you, that nurtures you and nourishes you.

It's one of the ways that many people find helpful. Writing is easy to do as you can capture how you are feeling at the time and go back to reflect on it.

There are some other ways;

Visual jornaling- a picture or sketch a day

Photography

Voice memo

Thought

But I wonder if any of you have any thoughts about how to record your reflections.

What happens next?

So if You can recall,

We have all this input & we have a net to capture it. But what does this mean?

If we create the space for reflection in our lives then our lives will change. That's undeniable.

Every one will have a way that's most useful to make sense of the things we capture.

The things We capture are the things that Upon reflection tell us about ourselves, God, our neighbor and the planet.

One of the goals of reflection is to become the Best version of ourselves. I guess going back to the gym or taking classes analogy.

Reflection as a discipline creates change but it may not be instant. It may be uncomfortable as intimacy can bring up things that are not easy.

Immersion - Incoming Thoughts, inspiration & ideas

Capturing - Ways of capturing all of these ideas

Processing - Reflecting upon these captured thoughts

Implementing - Understanding how these captured thoughts fit into my life, my faith and what changes need to happen.

Sometimes the changes will be dramatic, as they will be about making a u turn. However more often than not, these changes will be incremental, 2 degrees to the left but still Running in the same direction.